Dolly Parton and her husband, Carl Dean, have been married for more than 58 years, an almost unheard-of feat for someone in the entertainment industry. But for Parton, the key to their successful relationship is more a testament to who they each are as people, than any formula or secret.
“He’s quiet and I’m loud, and we’re funny,” she says on Bunnie Xo’s Dumb Blonde podcast (via People). “Oh, he’s hilarious. And I think one of the things that’s made it last so long through the years is that we love each other [and] we respect each other, but we have a lot of fun.”
Dean has also notably been absent from most of the big moments of her career, of which there were plenty. It’s a compromise the two came to very early in their marriage, and one they have stuck to for almost six decades.
“I begged him to go with me in ‘67. We’d got married in ‘66. So, that’s when I won the first award for the BMI Song of the Year,” she says of being honored for “Put it Off Until Tomorrow.” “I rented him a tux and begged him to go, and he did. And, oh, he was so uncomfortable the whole night.”
It was that night that set the precedent for the rest of their relationship, an arrangement that works surprisingly well for both of them.
“He said, ‘Look, now I want you to do everything you want to do, and I wish you the best, but don’t ever ask me to go to another one of these damn things because I ain’t going,” Parton remembers.’ And he never did.”
“He wanted to be around home, and I’m a gypsy by nature,” she adds. “I just love to go and love to see what else is out there … That’s worked well for us.”
Dean might not be known by the general public, thanks to his reclusive by choice lifestyle, but those in her inner circle know — and adore — him.
“Everybody loves Carl,” Dean boasts. “He don’t want me to tell the world nothing about Carl, so there you go. I can talk what I want to, but he’ll say, ‘Just leave me out the whole damn thing.'”
Courtesy of the CMA
Dean’s choice to stay out of the public extends into their private life, including how they celebrate their own milestones.
“Even on anniversaries and stuff like that, we usually stay home and make something special,” Parton reveals, adding that they like either McDonald’s or Mexican restaurants.
“He loves Mexican food, period. But we go, we’ll go sit in a booth, if it’s an anniversary or just sometimes on a Saturday,” she says. “We know where to go before the crowd comes. He doesn’t like big crowds.”
When Parton and Dean are home together, they also choose to look over everyday offenses and arguments.
“Anytime [there’s] too much tension going on, either one of us can like, find a joke about it to really break the tension, where we don’t let it go so far,” says the singer. “We never fought back and forth. And I’m glad now that we never did, because once you start that, that becomes a lifetime thing. I’ve seen it with so many people, and I thought, ‘I ain’t ever starting that.’ I couldn’t bear to think that he’d say something I couldn’t take… because I’m a very sensitive person toward other people and myself.”
Parton has been with Dean her entire adult life, meeting him when she was 18, and tying the knot when she was just 20 years old. The East Tennessee native credits her busy lifestyle with their enduring marriage.
“I always joke and laugh when people ask me what’s the key to my long marriage and lasting love. I always say ‘Stay gone!’ and there’s a lot of truth to that,” Parton says. “I travel a lot, but we really enjoy each other when we’re together and the little things we do.”
Parton’s Threads: My Songs in Symphony will launch on March 20 in Nashville with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. She also recently launched her own Dolly Beauty line of cosmetics, as well as her own Dolly Wines.
The business icon is also building her own Songteller Hotel in Nashville, and will have her own Hello, I’m Dolly Broadway musical, premiering in 2026.
Dolly Parton’s Billy the Kid Comes Home for Christmas book is out now. Keep track of all of Parton’s projects at DollyParton.com.